Newstime: The Stories You Might Have Missed This Week

From film to TV, gaming to comics and everything in between, here’s what you might have missed in pop culture news this week.

TV

With only a couple of weeks left before The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is released on Netflix, fans have just been treated to one final trailer for the new prequel series.

The Haunting of Hill House was one of the scariest shows to grace our screens in recent years, and show creator Mike Flanagan has recently suggested that the show’s second season, The Haunting of Bly Manor, will be even scarier as they won’t be working within the same constraints as last time.

Netflix is following in the footsteps of Amazon’s hit new series The Boys by adapting their own version of Mark Millar and Frank Quitely’s Jupiter’s Legacy, which follows the story of the modern offspring of classic age superheroes coming to terms with their legacy. Recent set photos have revealed actor Josh Duhamel in the role of the Utopian.

Apple knows the real way to make an impression with its own streaming service Apple TV+ is to pack its original content with big names. Most recently, they have released a teaser for their new series The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell.

It was already announced at San Diego Comic-Con that the upcoming Disney+ WandaVision series would lead directly into the MCU’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and now new rumours suggest that the Loki series will do much the same by leading directly into Thor: Love and Thunder. Reports are that Loki, who absconded with the Tesseract during Avengers: Endgame, will use it to travel through multiple timelines, before arriving back in the MCU proper with Thor’s original hammer Mjolnir with him.

Amazon’s Wheel of Time series has announced the show’s main cast. With a LoTR series also in production, Amazon is ready for a flood of epic fantasy.

Madeleine Madden, Josha Stradowski, Marcus Rutherford, Zoe Robins, and Barney Harris.

Sam and Dean Winchester may be gearing up for the 15th and final season of Supernatural, but one character that’s unlikely to return for the last season is Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s John Winchester. According to show writer Eugene Ross-Lemming, the boys’ father had the perfect send-off during the show’s 300th episode and is not likely to appear again. One Winchester family member who is returning, however, is Sam and Dean’s half-brother Adam, who hasn’t been seen since season five.

Raven is getting closer to assuming her classic look in the second season of Titans, with recent images revealing the presence of a familiar red crystal in the middle of her forehead. In other versions of her story, the crystal was used to trap the essence of her demonic father Trigon, who appeared at the end of the season one cliff-hanger.

Recently speaking to a German fansite, Tolkien scholar and member of the Amazon LoTR series creative team, Tom Shipley, has revealed that the Tolkien estate has insisted that the new show not change or alter the events of the second age of Middle-earth as they were described in Tolkien’s original writings. Whilst they will have plenty of room to fill in the blanks, nothing they add is allowed to conflict in any way to official canon, so it’s probably a good thing they have one of the world’s foremost Tolkien experts to keep them all on the straight and narrow.

Building on the covert world of Jason Bourne, based on the novels by Robert Ludlum and film franchise starring Matt Damon, a new spin-off series Treadstone will chart the early days of the covert program, which made Bourne the man he was, and contrasts it with a new program named Cicada, which will see sleeper agents activated 10 years after they underwent their original training.

Lastly, fans of The 100 won’t want to miss this week’s Supanova TV Panel Pick, featuring Supa-Star alumna Eliza Taylor, revealing her ideal tattoo for Clarke!

FILM

A little while back, we revealed that Disney was courting One Direction’s Harry Styles to take on the role of Prince Eric in the upcoming live-action Little Mermaid. Now rumours are circulating that whilst the role was pretty much his, the singer has seemingly changed his mind at the last minute and has turned down the offer. Looks like Disney will have to go back to the casting board!

Also on the live-action Disney front, fresh off the success of the recent Guy Ritchie remake of Aladdin, it would seem that the Mouse House are keen to return to Agrabah, according to the film’s producer Dan Lin, who is currently looking at ways to continue the franchise.

The countdown is on to the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and recently the brother of composer John Williams, Don, revealed to the Academy of Scoring Arts as part of their study on the score of Jurassic Park, that John has written 135 minutes of music for the final film in the Skywalker saga, and has used every Star Wars theme he has previously written.

The sequel to Eddie Murphy’s 1988 comedy classic Coming to America has recently cast Blade actor Wesley Snipes in the role of the film’s main villain, General Izzi, a despot who rules the country neighbouring Prince Akeem’s own nation. Returning for the sequel are also original cast members Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, John Amos and Shari Headley.

Comedy actor Marlon Wayans has recently spoken to ScreenRant and has suggested that he would be more than willing to assume the role of DC’s elastic superhero Plastic Man if the chance ever presented itself. At the moment, however, DC already has its hands full with a big slate of films planned, with the next up being the standalone Joker film, to be followed by Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.

Speaking of DC, former DCEU director Zack Snyder has moved on from superheroes to zombies, offering a new behind the scenes look at his upcoming Netflix film Army of the Dead.

Want to say a special thank you to Jarred Land at Red Digital Cinema for building our amazing cameras. They’re killing it. #reddigitalcinema #8k #AOTD pic.twitter.com/P9AnTvQOfZ
— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) August 11, 2019

GAMING

A new Resident Evil game could be coming sooner than we thought! With RE2Make being one of the most successful in the franchise’s history, all eyes are back on Capcom to see what they’ll do, and it looks like their next move has been to reach out to RE fans and invite them to test a game in ‘early development.’

The latest update for No Man’s Sky was released this week, and it features the most meaningful additions to the game yet. The list of updates is apparently over 500 items, ranging from very small, to very big changes, including PlayStation VR support.

This is No Man’s Sky Beyond

Our largest update so far, launching TODAY for free.

I’m so proud of this team.

You can feel the love pouring out of these Patch Notes… 😭😭😭https://t.co/4Lb8K7ez5zpic.twitter.com/XyKIWS3q7h

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) August 14, 2019

And the return of a 33-year-old classic Bubble Bobble is expected for 2020. The sequel to the classic arcade game, set for release on the Switch, boasts a hectic four-player game mode, and just as much colour and mayhem as the original. 

The Dota2 International 9 group stages kicked off in Shanghai yesterday, with 16 teams playing for a share of (currently) 33 Million USD, and with 2 Aussies in the mix, OG’s ana and Mineski’s kpii, it’s definitely worth checking out, and with the grand finals on Sunday, 25 August, it’s looking like a solid week of esports action.

ANIMATION

Another new Evangelion trailer has been released online, and in typical Eva fashion, it is as borderline incomprehensible as always, but that’s part of the show’s charm. The new trailer for Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 features a brand-new look at a redesigned Unit-08.

Director Ei Aoki, the man behind Fate/Zero, has been developing a new anime series set to air in 2020. Described as a ‘murder mystery in an incomprehensible virtual world,’ ID: Invaded looks as thrilling as it is confusing.

ICYMI, Supanova TV flashbacked to Brisbane 2018, releasing an awesome interview with Ghost in the Shell: Arise‘s Motoko Kusanagi a.k.a. voice actress Elizabeth Maxwell! Elizabeth and Supanova TV host, Quinny, chat GitS, weapons training, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and more in this insightful exclusive.

COMICS

Marvel has a few pieces of news this week, beginning with the announcement that fan-favourite character Yondu will be headlining his very own comic book. The new series will be written by Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson, and will be illustrated by John McCrea.

The Scream symbiote is set to star in a brand new series, spun off from the current Absolute Carnage series. The series will be written by Clay McCleod and illustrated by Chris Mooneyham, and will bring mystery to the identity of the symbiote’s host; however, there is a chance it may not be human. Scream: Curse of Carnage issue #1 will have a November release.

Another classic character is being given his own comic run. Morbius the Living Vampire will appear in a self-titled comic book in the lead up to his cinematic debut. Vita Ayala and Marcelo Ferreira will be teaming up to write and illustrate the new series, which will show Michael Morbius’ search to cure his vampirism once and for all. Morbius issue #1 will also have a November release.

In sad news this week, celebrated comic artist Ernie Colón has passed away at the age of 88 after a long battle with cancer. During his incredible career, Colón created DC Comics characters Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, and Marvel Comics’ Damage Control. He made an impact on painting, writing, sculpting and drawing and inspired many along the way.

Lastly, from DC, comic fans are being warned to take the title The Flash: Death of the Speed Force literally. In a recent interview with CBR, author Joshua Williamson said, “Death of the Speed Force is going to be crazy. It’ll be a cool story… and I don’t want to get into spoilers, but when I say, ‘the death of the Speed Force,’ it’s pretty literal.”

COLLECTIBLES

Kicking off this week’s collectible news is the recently-announced official Batman “Batarang” Collectors Series. Designed by DC Comics and commissioned by IKON, the replicas are sculpted with heavy metals and feature a weathered pain effect. Each replica comes equipped with a mountable display base perfect for any collector’s wall. Whilst this series will feature up to four unique replicas (Batman 85, Nolan, BvS and Arkham), both the Nolan inspired and Arkham universe models are currently available for pre-order with unconfirmed 2019 dates for the rest of the set.

In further celebration of Marvel’s 80th anniversary, Hot Toys has announced the release of a new stylised Venom figure, designed by Japanese sculptor Hiroto Ohkubo. With five points of articulation, Venom stands at over 34cm in height and features interchangeable heads and posable looks. This highly-detailed figure is painted to change appearance when subject to different light. Available for pre-order, this figure is expected to ship early next year at the latest.

A prototype 1:6 collectable figure of Pom Klementieff’s Mantis as seen in Endgame has also been unveiled by Hot Toys.

Pom Klementieff, who portrays Mantis in #Marvel Studios’ productions. She has visited Hot Toys at Comic Con Seoul, where we received an opportunity to share the latest prototype of #Mantis 1:6 collectible figure inspired by her appearance in the recent #AvengersEndgame pic.twitter.com/CMxklYMPab
— Hot Toys (@hottoysofficial) August 14, 2019